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Steve Tilley, QMI Agency

Aug 15, 2014

, Last Updated: 4:59 PM ET

Dozens of wrestlers and mixed martial artists have made the leap from the WWE’s squared circle and the UFC’s caged octagon to a place that’s fraught with nearly as much peril: Hollywood’s silver screen. And the move doesn’t always go as smoothly as a top rope dropkick.

More professional fighters (or, you know, sports entertainment titans) are showing up at the multiplex than ever before, with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson donning a dead lion for Hercules, Dave Bautista playing the musclebound Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy and the likes of Randy Couture and Ronda Rousey in the just-opened The Expendables 3. Here’s a look at who’s on top and who got tossed out of the ring.

Dwayne Johnson

AKA: The Rock

Box office piledriver: Fast & Furious 6 (2013)

Critical bodyslam: Tooth Fairy (2010)

Career outlook: Solid as a… well, you know. Johnson is the poster boy for wrestlers who have reinvented themselves as marquee movie stars.

Gina Carano

AKA: Conviction

Box office piledriver: Fast & Furious 6 (2013)

Critical bodyslam: In the Blood (2014)

Career outlook: The MMA superstar may not have been picked to play Wonder Woman as some were hoping, but Carano’s acting career – which got off the ground with Steven Soderbergh’s excellent Haywire – looks to be in good shape. Just like her.

Roderick Toombs

AKA: Rowdy Roddy Piper

Box office piledriver: They Live (1988)

Critical bodyslam: Hell Comes to Frogtown (1988)

Career outlook: Piper still occasionally ventures into the wrestling ring and has no fewer than six movie credits in 2014, although it remains to be seen how many get theatrical releases. At least he’s still kickin’!

Andre Roussimoff

AKA: Andre the Giant

Box office piledriver: The Princess Bride (1987)

Critical bodyslam: Micki & Maude (1984)

Career outlook: Not very good, being as the gentle giant passed away in 1993. Slumber in peace.

John Cena

AKA: The Prototype

Box office piledriver: 12 Rounds (2009)

Critical bodyslam: Fred: The Movie (2010)

Career outlook: Given that the WWE champ’s current acting claim to fame is playing the father of excruciating YouTube personality Fred Figglehorn, Cena’s cinematic career appears to be in a sleeper hold.

Career outlook: St.-Pierre is still on hiatus from mixed martial arts, due to injuries and a lack of desire to compete. In the event he doesn’t return, maybe acting will be his second calling.

Ronda Rousey

AKA: Rowdy

Box office piledriver: The Expendables 3 (2014)

Critical bodyslam: The Expendables 3 (2014)

Career outlook: The Expendables 3 is the MMA champ’s acting debut, but she’ll be seen in next year’s Fast & Furious 7 and the big-screen version of Entourage. And, if there’s any justice at all, the all-female Expendabelles.